Category: Featured Column

When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was appointed as Man Utd caretaker manager following the dismissal of Jose Mourinho back in December, opinion was divided. The United faithful were ecstatic to have a club legend back at Old Trafford, but many neutrals argued that Solskjaer’s sole foray into management in England had been little short of disastrous. The Norwegian had been sacked from Cardiff following the Bluebirds’ relegation from the Premier League back in 2014, lasting just a few games into the Championship campaign before his dismissal. He returned to Molde –…

Man City manager Pep Guardiola has indicated his desire to keep Ilkay Gundogan at the club beyond the end of his current contract, which expires next year. The Germany international refused to commit his future to the Citizens, admitting he could be tempted by challenges elsewhere when his current deal is finished. He did also imply that he is happy at the club, however – and so the former Barcelona boss is seemingly no closer to knowing whether to plan for life without Gundogan beyond next season’s climax or not.…

It is not a common sight. You attend a football match generally to enjoy the entertainment on display, surrounded by hundreds or thousands – depending on the size of your club’s following – of like-minded individuals all gathering together to support and cheer on your team of choice. There are the usual matchday rituals, of course – and the walk to the stadium among a sea of shirts displaying your team’s colours always gets the hairs on the back of the neck to rise a little. When the game kicks…

If it were up to Manchester United’s left-back Luke Shaw, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would immediately be awarded the job at Old Trafford on a full-time basis. Shaw was speaking after what can only be described as pandemonium in Paris as Manchester United pulled off one of the great escapes and gave their supporters a night in France’s capital that they will never forget. The 23-year-old is ‘certain’ that Solskjaer will get the job and in all honesty, Shaw probably speaks for everyone in the footballing world. Few things convince the…

Right around this time of year, we start to zero in on the race fo the Premier League title. This year that’s looking like a particularly fun race, with Liverpool and Manchester City in position to battle down the stretch, and Tottenham not entirely out of the picture yet. Not everything is about the top of the table, however, and looking toward the bottom there’s an interesting story beginning to develop. Early season hire Claudio Ranieri has struggled mightily to turn Fulham around, and with the Cottagers facing the very…

Following reports on Thursday linking Giuseppe Rossi with a move to Tottenham, Coach Mauricio Pochettino has ruled out a move for the Italian-American in his weekly press conference. After being asked about the reports, Pochettino said: “There are many names that appear in every transfer window. I think he is another name to add on the list but it is only a rumour. We have not considered him.” The Spurs manager will be without star striker Harry Kane for up to 10 matches with an ankle injury, while Heung-Min Son will…

Back when at Real Madrid, he was the future of the Santiago Bernabeu, and indeed of Spanish football. In 2012/13 he had made his breakthrough under Jose Mourinho, making regular appearances and even starting in el clasico, playing a key role in a 2-1 victory, and made 12 league appearances that year, netting twice. 2013/14 saw further progress, 23 league matches, scoring 8 goals as Carlo Ancelotti joined the club and Morata found his place in rotation with Karem Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Angel Di Maria and an emerging…

The playing career of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was highly successful, albeit after a slow start. For five years he played in the lowly Norwegian leagues for Clausenengen, until close to his 22ndbirthday. At that time, just prior to the start of 1995, he got the big move, which he waited patiently for, to Molde. In his first season with them, Solskjaer scored freely. He developed a good strike partnership with Arild Stavrum. Between them, they scored 36 Tippeligaen goals, 20 of which were Solskjaer’s. The pair’s good form helped their…

Racism, or discrimination of any kind, can’t be allowed to have a place in football. The game is being hurt by the behaviour of a minority. They believe it acceptable to enter football stadiums to shout despicable language at certain players. It is a form of abuse, disrespect and intimidation. In order to eradicate racism, it is important to not only identify the culprits but also to address the root cause. From as young an age as possible, within football coaching and schools, children need to be educated on the importance of…

Since Mauricio Pochettino became manager of Tottenham in 2014, the club’s results in European competition have been mixed. Successive runs to the knock – out stages of UEFA’s Europa League involved hard – fought away draws with Fiorentina, Monaco and Partizan Belgrade. In contrast to those positive results, Tottenham did experience disappointment, losing to Anderlecht, Besiktas and Borussia Dortmund. Just as there were successes and failures in the two UEFA Europa League campaigns overseen by Pochettino, his fortunes have varied in the Champions League. The first encounter which he had…

Each season, the teams promoted from the Championship are cited as the favourites for the drop from the Premier League table, but as the season progresses there are always twists and turns that surprise fans. For those who like to gamble on the outcome, both for the winners and the losers of the league, but today we’re focusing on the losers getting tips from Infogol as to what teams look most likely to be relegated this season. Huddersfield Town David Wagner did a great job last season keeping Huddersfield up…

Successive finishes in the English Premier League outside the top – four indicated that there was the need for change at Arsenal. Their supporters, because of too many inept performances, especially defensively, had lost belief, faith and trust in Arsene Wenger. To succeed him, there were many candidates listed in the betting at ladbrokes, including former players Mikel Arteta and Patrick Viera or Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers. Instead of any of them, the challenge of replacing Wenger was assigned to Unai Emery. The scale of the job ahead of him, to make…

In the fifth round of group stage matches of the 2018 – 2019 UEFA Europa League, Britain’s four participants gave a strong showing by not conceding a single goal in the competition. It is secondary to UEFA’s Champions League and widely regarded as being less prestigious. Such a view is often reflected in team selection for UEFA Europa League games. They can be seen by many managers as an opportunity to use either players on the periphery of their squads or youngsters. Not all choose to, instead they field the…

The first Merseyside derby of the 2015 – 2016 English Premier League season. It was to be the final game of Brendan Rodgers’ reign as manager of Liverpool. Ahead because of a Danny Ings goal, Romelu Lukaku equalised for Everton to earn a 1 – 1 draw. The result left Liverpool in 10th place, which prompted a decision to replace Rodgers with Jurgen Klopp. The German’s first counterpart at Everton was Roberto Martinez. They met for the one and only time in a Merseyside derby on 20 April 2016. It…

For a fourth consecutive home game, Everton won as Marco Silva’s transformation of Goodison Park into a fortress continued. A solitary goal from Gylfi Sigurdsson sufficed for his team to beat Cardiff 1 – 0. Although Everton dominated possession, they had to be patient for their goal. It arrived shortly before the hour mark as Sigurdsson finished calmly. He did so to score his first home goal since a 3 – 0 win over Fulham. That victory was the beginning of a fine run of form for Everton. They have won their…

A moment of mindlessness. The anticipation from James Maddison was that Brighton & Hove Albion’s defender Shane Duffy would foul him. To try to win his team a penalty, he fell to the ground without being touched. Referee Chris Kavanagh was not fooled. He immediately saw that Maddison was being deceitful and issued the player a second yellow card of the game. It was necessary for Leicester City to play for over an hour with 10 men because of Maddison’s dismissal. It has created unwanted attention for him which contrasts sharply with…

Conditional on Samir Nasri discovering full fitness, a contract with West Ham awaits him. Without a club since leaving Antalyaspor in January of this year, he is trying to get his career back on track. A doping ban, relating to a breach of WADA rules in December 2016, at which time Nasri was on loan to Sevilla, is due to finish at the end of December. In the lead – up to that date, he has been training with West Ham. Their manager Manuel Pellegrini was in charge of Nasri at Manchester…

A year which started with a win, ended with a win. In between victories over the Netherlands and Croatia, there were many other positives for England. In the process of reaching the final four of the 2018 World Cup and winning their UEFA Nations League group, they played some excellent football. The players which manager Gareth Southgate selected, all embraced every opportunity which they received to play for their country. Although it was largely a batch of young players which represented England, their performances were consistently good. The faith which…

Let’s get one thing straight. The myth that Premier League football tickets are incredibly rare because most stadium crowds are sell-outs is completely false. In fact, football tickets are easy to get a hold of if you look at different ways of doing such a task. For lesser-profile matches, the general public will have football tickets available to them in a variation of ways, however, the truth is that for the games everyone wants to be at there has to be more digging involved if you are to secure your…

Barcelona’s visit to Wembley to face Spurs is being seen as a tough tie at the wrong time for the home side, up against La Liga league leaders, and having lost in their last euro outing with Inter. Defeats away to Watford, home to fellow Champions League challengers Liverpool, and away at San Siro against Inter, coupled with unconvincing performances in many of their other outings, have resulted in fans being largely disappointed at the start to the campaign, with the sportsbook GiveMeBet among others needing to factor this in to…

Arsenal currently sit seventh in the Premier League table after a turbulent start to this season’s campaign. Despite the Gunners only being three points behind Watford in fourth place and having three straight wins, the bookies are already ruling out a top 4 finish. Sure, it kicked off quite badly, with losses to Man City and Chelsea in the two first games. But since then, Arsenal have beaten West Ham at home and claimed two strong away wins against the likes of Cardiff and Newcastle. Yet, the odds for Arsenal,…

2018 has seen the beginning of a new, not-so-exciting, national competition called Nations League. Many of us were left baffled, wondering what exactly it is and why FIFA felt the need to add it to the calendar of biennial competition. After all, we already have a European Championship every two years and didn’t necessarily feel the need to have another one. UEFA has said to have devised the competition to eliminate meaningless international friendlies”, which make a lot of sense. However, it really seems as if, after teams such as…

During Italy’s 1-1 UEFA Nations League draw with Poland, one of the few distinctly positive notes for new Coach Roberto Mancini to take, was the performance of substitute Federico Chiesa, Fiorentina’s 20 year-old attacker. Son of Fiorentina, Sampdoria and Parma man Enrico, Chiesa broke into the Viola team in 2016, scoring three goals, and followed that up last term with six in 35 matches, proving himself already worthy of being a starter in a strong Serie A side. This year he is expected to continue his progress and add more…

When Paul Pogba returned to Man Utd after a few years away at Juventus, the Red Devils and supporters welcomed the return of the Frenchman, with #Pogback trending on Twitter following the announcement of the deal. Pogba had been seen as “the one that got away” from Sir Alex Ferguson, having gone on to become one of the world’s finest players during his spell in Serie A. The deal would set United back a then-world record £89m, and alongside fellow new signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic it appeared that the club could…

In the World Cup this past summer, England managed their most successful campaign since 1990 when they reached the semi-finals. Manager Gareth Southgate and the England players themselves enjoyed the plaudits for doing such a professional job where perhaps past generations have choked. Fittingly, the Three Lions also ended their penalty shootout hoodoo when they eliminated Colombia from the competition on spot kicks. Statistical data has emerged, however, which suggests that English players are being given less playing time in the Premier League than ever before, particularly at clubs vying…